Evidence is continuing to mount that PlayStation is gearing up to offer a dedicated launcher and PSN account integration for its ongoing slate of PC ports of PlayStation Studios titles.
Back in May, the company started advertising for positions related to PlayStation-PC integration, architecture and applications (as seen in the below tweets from @Zuby_Tech), but further fuel has been added to the fire thanks to the recent PC release of Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man.
PlayStation game experience roadmap for all game related experiences including SDK development, client application experiences as PlayStation network Platform integration"
— @Zuby_Tech (@Zuby_Tech) May 18, 2022
The Nixxes-developed port of Spider-Man came out last Friday (and is excellent, in our opinion) and has since sent dataminers into a stir after files were discovered that make reference to things like “PSNAccountLinked” and “PSNLinkingEntitlements”. VGC reports that it has viewed and can verify the existence of the files in question.
What this could mean for the future of PlayStation Studios games on PC is a few things. Firstly, PSN account integration which could be a massive gateway to getting even more players enjoying these games on a PC, particularly if things like cross-save, cross-play and trophy support are implemented in. It might even create some small glimmer of hope of seeing an implementation of the new, tiered PlayStation Plus subscription model reaching the PC platform.
A dedicated launcher could also potentially turn some off, if it becomes a mandatory extra step of DRM after already buying and installing games through existing clients like Steam. In the end, it would simply further indicate that PlayStation is deadly serious about cutting out their own little slice of the PC gaming market – a tactic that’s evidently working wonders for them so far.
